← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
6/12/25: China Mineral Deal Guillotine, Trump Freaked Over Elon 'Burn Book', Zohran Surges In NYC
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- [00:00]
Unknown Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Lester Holt
NBC Nightly News Legacy isn't handed down or NBC News.
- [00:09]
Tom Brokaw
I'm Tom Brokaw.
- [00:09]
Krystal Ball
We hope to see you back here.
- [00:10]
Lester Holt
I'm Lester Holt.
- [00:11]
Sagar Enjeti
It's carried forward.
- [00:12]
Lester Holt
Tom Yamas is there for us.
- [00:14]
Sagar Enjeti
Firefighters are still working around the clock. As the world changes, we look for what endures. We are coming on the air with breaking news right now. We look for a constant and from one era to the next. Trust is the anchor for NBC Nightly News.
- [00:28]
Lester Holt
I'm Tom Yamas.
- [00:29]
Sagar Enjeti
A new chapter begins NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. Evenings on NBC.
- [00:35]
Lester Holt
Hello, it is Ryan. And we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free, anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So sign up now@chumbac casino.com that's chumbacasino.com no purchase necessary vgw group void where.
- [01:02]
Sagar Enjeti
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- [01:05]
Krystal Ball
I've never felt like this before. It's like you just get me. I feel like my true self with you. Does that sound crazy? And it doesn't hurt that you're gorgeous. Okay, that's it. I'm taking you home with me. I mean, you can't find shoes this good just anywhere. Find a shoe for every you from brands you love like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas and more at your DSW store or.
- [01:33]
Lester Holt
Dsw.Com hey guys, Sager and Krystal here.
- [01:36]
Krystal Ball
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of the show.
- [01:44]
Lester Holt
This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.
- [01:49]
Krystal Ball
So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.
- [02:01]
Lester Holt
We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breakingpoints.com at the same time. We have some updates on the US And China. So Trump says a deal is done. The details are a little bit different. Let's go ahead and put this up there on the screen. Trump said that a deal restoring a China trade Truce is done. So let's make this very clear. This is about a deal over the truce, not necessarily a deal between the two countries, although that's originally kind of the way that it was sold. So this was after the update that we gave everybody on Tuesday. The US And China met for the very second time on their trade talks after there was some indication that things might fall apart. The impetus for those talks was China's holdup of rare earth minerals. And that really is the keystone of this entire deal. So what we see right now is that the tariffs are alleged, they're gonna stay at the current levels that were signed at a deal in Switzerland about a month or so ago. Trump said in his Post that the US would set a total of 55% tariffs, which by the way, is still, you know, pretty, as opposed to the 30% previously. And then China would keep its current reciprocal where things are right now. However, what we see right now is that the framework would, quote, restore the pact they agreed to in Switzerland, but increase and freeze for six months the speed up of these rare earth minerals coming to the United States. One of the reasons why the administration was so desperate to get that rare earth mineral pipeline back to US Production is that we're so wholly reliant on it. We did a thing yesterday about this mineral samarium, which the US Military needs for fighter jets and was cut off overnight on China. There were several others. They covered here they have a 100% capacity. I mean, what's annoying about the term rare earth is it's not rare. It's about refining capacity. That's really what it's all about. It's not even necessarily where they're from. It's about the ability to refine it and to make it usable in production. So can we put the next, please part on the screen? This is the most important part. And we flagged at the time. The tariffs itself, of course, mattered. But the cutoff of the minerals and the export licenses by China, which was immediately put into place after the trade war was announced, is the absolute, like, most impactful thing that they did. And it's not a surprise as to why Trump eventually folded on those China tariffs and why now he has been granted this, quote, six month limit on the ease of rare earth export licenses. But, I mean, it doesn't take a genius to see six months is not a long time. Okay, six months is basically like a hovering guillotine over the US Economy, US Production for so many different critical things that basically makes it so that they have an incredible amount of leverage at this time. And this is part of the problem over the lack of planning. And I would fold in the build back better or sorry, not build back. The big beautiful bill into this is there is not really one ounce of serious investment to make sure that we're refining these minerals here or to pump billions into production. I mean, if anything, the criticism of the IRA that it was all green energy, and I'm like, look, fine, then pump it into whatever, like, you know, for industrialization and all these other plants and things that we want to be able to compete or at least have autonomy from the Chinese here. But instead it's really the opposite. I mean, effectively what they're saying here within these bills is they're not only not investing, but the tariff negotiations are actually ones where it seems to actually just extend like a lot of the previous relationship. It's really not trying to solve a lot of the autonomy problems that we had previously. Right now he's like, okay, we'll continue this thing for six months. There's not even really a plan to try and bring TSMC here or anything like that. So I think there's still big, big problems going forward. And if anything, this could actually offset any serious investment that was being made here in the U.S. yeah, I don't.
- [05:55]
Krystal Ball
Know if you said we covered this when you were out, but some US Automakers were looking at manufacturing some auto parts in China so that they could.
- [06:05]
Lester Holt
Have access to tariffs as well and.
- [06:06]
Krystal Ball
Also to these, you know, to what they, the materials that they need in the context of this, the export controls. That again, like this was so thoroughly predictable, which again shows you how haphazard and poorly thought out this entire quote unquote strategy. I don't know if you can even like call it there, that is too favorable. Has been where, you know, there's no okay. These are the industries we need to reassure. And here's the industrial policy that goes with it and here's how we're building a coalition to make sure that we can do this and stand up to China in this way or that. No, none of that. All of it's by the seat of the pants. And we have another indication of that. So there are sort of conflicting statements coming out of the Trump administration about this upcoming July deadline in which previously they've said, okay, we're putting in place this 90 day deadline. We're gonna have 90 deals in 90 days. How is that going? And that 90 day deadline is fast approach. The new line out of the administration was, okay, well if we don't come to deals. We're just going to unilaterally put in place tariffs. I don't know, we'll have a new Liberation Day chart or something like that. Besant was asked yesterday and he said that Trump is likely to extend the pause on the tariffs past that. However, Trump yesterday said that he may actually move up the timeline and just start sending out unilateral letters saying like, this is your new tariff. In any case, let's go ahead and take a listen to what Scott Besant had to say yesterday.
- [07:29]
Lester Holt
Very few of the trade deals have been announced yet. I think most people in Congress and around the world would like to know what's going on. Should America be preparing for Liberation Day 2.0?
- [07:39]
Krystal Ball
Should we plan?
- [07:40]
Lester Holt
What do we plan for January, July 9 and July 2?
- [07:44]
Sagar Enjeti
I would say, as I have repeatedly said, that there are 18 important trading partners.
- [07:50]
Lester Holt
We are working toward deals on those. And it is highly likely that those countries that are trading blocs, as in.
- [08:00]
Sagar Enjeti
The case of the eu, who are.
- [08:02]
Lester Holt
Negotiating in good faith, we will roll.
- [08:05]
Sagar Enjeti
The date forward to continue the good faith negotiations.
- [08:09]
Lester Holt
If someone is not negotiating, then we will not.
- [08:13]
Krystal Ball
So in contrast to that, Trump said that he would set unilateral tariffs in two weeks. So who the hell knows? In addition, Scott Besant also revealed that there is a new tds. It's not Trump Derangement syndrome now. It's also Tariff Derangement syndrome. Take a listen to that.
- [08:29]
Sagar Enjeti
I will say that I believe that.
- [08:33]
Lester Holt
The economic impetus, the certainty, because.
- [08:38]
Krystal Ball
There.
- [08:38]
Lester Holt
Is a duality between the critics of this administration. All I hear is tariffs. It's like TDS has become Tariff Derangement syndrome, and that all I hear about is uncertainty from tariffs, uncertainty from tariffs, and. But then the same side wants to.
- [08:59]
Sagar Enjeti
Give us uncertainty on taxes.
- [09:01]
Lester Holt
So let's get this bill done and get the certainty on taxes. We will have certainty on tariffs within.
- [09:11]
Sagar Enjeti
Some window over the coming quarters.
- [09:13]
Krystal Ball
Amen.
- [09:14]
Lester Holt
Then the US Economy can realize its full potential.
- [09:18]
Krystal Ball
So tariff derangement syndrome, maybe people are bringing that up to you a lot because, number one, you are the Treasury Secretary, and number two, because it's actually a real and major issue for the economy and specifically for businesses trying to figure out what the hell they're gonna do and how to plan and how to adjust.
- [09:34]
Lester Holt
Look, everything right now for the administration is they both want to wave a victory flag because, for example, let's put this next one, please, up on the screen. US inflation rose only about 0.1% in May from the prior month, which was less than expected. But part of the reason for that was a folding of unilateralism on the tariffs. So they both want to say that people are deranged about the tariffs. Part of the reason why some of the economic data that's been coming in so far is not catastrophic, specifically because they retreated from their own policy. Same with the S&P 500 with inflation, with shortages. But I will say, look, I really don't think people have grappled at the political level of what those tariffs really meant for a lot of people. I mean, no matter what, especially if you're in a white collar and you work in any sort of business planning, accounting, finance, I mean, this was the story. It's very rare in this country to have the government do something and it directly, directly impacts your business or it directly impacts your thinking. Most people are like, yeah, whatever, I live in Charlotte. Okay, why do I care about what's going on in Los Angeles? Maybe at a conceptual level, but not like this is gonna affect my business. Right. And I think that the tariffs in particular at a consumer finance level and broadly just like people working people worrying about things being able to buy. That's something that really tapped into people. And we see it also with kind of the absurdity around a lot of this planning. We're not gonna be reliant on China anymore. It's like, okay, well we have the biggest every five years. Where's the dollars to make sure that that's not gonna happen? I don't see a single one right now. Same with these rare earth mineral people do actually, I think would support billions, billions of dollars to be pumped into making sure that these types of reliance on China would not be there. But that's not broadly where things are. And that's actually a biggest failure I see with this whole strategy. What is this about? Right? Because at the very beginning, if we just came off of this, to me it's about autonomy, it's about being a real country is one that's able to produce its own weapons, its own food, produce its own energy, and produce the things that it needs to function. Yes, we can have trade, but in a time of war, in a time of crisis, we need to make sure this hedge fund stuff that pumps our economy right now, it's all bullshit. Same with AI that's not what matters. Go and ask Russia. As you can see happening for them right now, yes, they've had sanctioned to death, they're fine. And that's part of what you want to do. That's what Makes you antifragile in a sense. And we don't have that. And I think people really, you know, have a sense of that. But that's not what, you know, this 59% tariff or whatever on the islands or the tariffs on Vietnam, none of that made any strategic sense. So he really gave away a lot of that narrative. And in particular, you really see it with the approach to these China talks, where arguably the area where we need the most autonomy from China on this rare earth minerals refining, critical minerals, supply chains is exactly where we seem to be giving up the most ground. And for what? Like, so soybeans are getting fine. You know, like I said, food is important, but that's not the headline about what we're all actually concerned about here. Vitamins, pharmaceuticals. And so, I don't know, I think it's almost like the classic Trump strategy of like causing something and then fixing it and declaring victory. But, you know, this is not a game. This is very serious stuff. I talked yesterday about the drone attack by the Ukrainians on the Russian forces. Yeah, we are Russia. Like, people have now gone. We are Russia. We are the over invested superpower with this massive infrastructure empire across the world with the ultra exclusive guided missile destroyers and bombers and all that. The Houthis are able to withstand it. We are Russia. In that situation, I don't think people have really grappled with that. We don't have the drone. Do you know who has the drones? The Chinese. They have the best drone technology in the whole world. They've been planning drone swarms for a decade.
- [13:26]
Krystal Ball
90% of drone production, of course. Yep.
- [13:29]
Lester Holt
This is what people are not grappling with, the asymmetry of a lot of warfare. And even in an economy of where we are right now, and I'm really worried about it because this is exactly where if you give away something like this and something pops off, you have no leverage anymore. You know, Trump famously, like, we have all the cards. He's like, yeah, maybe with Ukraine, but that's a tiny little nation. That's nothing compared to China about what we're talking about. This is serious stuff.
- [13:52]
Krystal Ball
I mean, the rare earth thing alone, I know, was enough to bring the Trump administration to their knees.
- [13:57]
Lester Holt
Yeah.
- [13:58]
Krystal Ball
And the Chinese reportedly, like, drove a really hard bargain on that. And like Sager said before, like, you can have six months. You can have six months and then we'll see. You know, I think broadly part of what was so damaging to Trump about the Liberation Day tariffs was it really was kind of an emperor has no Clothes moment.
- [14:18]
Lester Holt
Right.
- [14:18]
Krystal Ball
He's always been very strong politically on the economy. I think that is the number one reason he got reelected is cuz people felt like, you know, when I think back to the first Trump administration, I think I was doing a little better economically. And there's all this decades of mythology about Trump the great businessman and Trump the dealmaker and all these sorts of things. And so this has been a real key to his political strength and power is that people thought he was some sort of economic genius. And when you looked at that chart, if you thought about it for five seconds, you were like, this makes no sense. This is going to be incredibly destructive. It's chaotic, there's no plan. They can't even tell us day to day what these things are meant to achieve. I think it was a real emperor has no clothes moment that hurt him in his key area of strength. Yes, immigration's been important to him from the beginning and other issues as well. But that has been the real promise. And the core brand of Trump is he's the deal maker, he's the businessman, he, he'll make sure you're doing okay economically. And people were willing to overlook a lot on that promise. So when you see something so insane, so unjustifiable, where there's so few people who are willing to go out and just full throated like, yes, this is a good idea and here's where we're headed. I think that was a blow to him politically. That will be very difficult to recover from because once you start seeing him as sort of just like chaotic and wild and undisciplined and unplanned on the economy, you don't really unsee that after that happens.
- [15:55]
Lester Holt
Totally. And yeah, I mean, it's also exposed just a lot of things. Like now we have this bond problem, right?
- [16:01]
Krystal Ball
Right.
- [16:01]
Lester Holt
With the US debt. And I was arguing with several friends of mine because they were like, we were talking about the debt and we're like, oh, there's gonna be a debt crisis. And I was like, everybody in my entire lifetime had told me there's gonna be a debt crisis was completely and totally wrong. So they're basically like Iraq, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, WMD people. In my mind, if you study US history, every debt crisis is because of what is because of a massive shift in geopolitical orientation and war. So we just talked about Iran. That's what would cause a debt crisis. Just so everybody knows is an actual massive impact to the Straits of Hormuz supply chain and all the energy supply. JP Morgan forecasted this morning, we could go to $120 per barrel. That's what causes a goddamn debt crisis. That's actually what we also see with the tariffs. The reason why, and as you remember, the bond markets are what forced Trump's hands. That was not because of US Spending. It was because of a loss of faith in the US as the primary guarantor and world's reserve currency. So by attacking that and the very foundations of the global American empire, which is both our force, but is really our financial system, very much in the same way that the British financial system was the backstop of the whole sun never sets mercantilism thing. That is really the major effect that he has had. And so, look, deficits and all that. People know my feelings. I think it's all bullshit as long as the US Is at the top. But staying at the top is the reason when you fall, then.
- [17:26]
Krystal Ball
Then suddenly you do have to worry about the debt of the deficit.
- [17:30]
Lester Holt
Look the world in. I mean, reading the accounts of, like, John Maynard Keynes and of other British economists in 1919 are terrifying. Cause I see us in those. They came out of this war and they won, you know, technically, but they really lost. If you really look at the overall destruction of their empire. And it's like they fall from the top of this empire and great European power to millions dead on the Somme, and communism and socialism, fears at home and having to pay all this debt from this war and all that, they never recover from that. And we, again, we're the Brits in this scenario. And that's actually what worries me the most about it. And, you know, the tariffs and all that, look, it's not gonna cause it per se, but you know, these things like empires don't just fall over a single thing. Nobody in 1919 woke up and said, the British Empire is over as we know it. It took until the 50s for it to fall apart. But in retrospect, it's obvious and a lot of people saw it at the time too. So that's what I worry about. NBC Nightly News legacy isn't handed down or NBC News.
- [18:36]
Tom Brokaw
I'm Tom Brokaw.
- [18:37]
Krystal Ball
You hope to see you back here.
- [18:38]
Lester Holt
I'm Lester Holt.
- [18:39]
Sagar Enjeti
It's carried forward.
- [18:40]
Lester Holt
Tom Yamas is there for us.
- [18:41]
Sagar Enjeti
Firefighters are still working around the clock. As the world changes, we look for what endures. We are coming on the air with breaking news right now. We look for a constant. And from one era to the next, trust is the anchor for NBC Nightly News.
- [18:55]
Lester Holt
I'm Tom Yamas.
- [18:56]
Sagar Enjeti
A new chapter begins NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas evenings on NBC.
- [19:02]
Tom Brokaw
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- [19:33]
Unknown Host
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- [20:05]
Krystal Ball
Shall we talk about our foremost oligarch? Speaking of crumbling empires. So Elon and Trump, you guys know the backstory. They're going at it. Elon in particular, going very hard in the paint, accused Trump of being a pedo, said that he bought the election for him, said that he should be impeached, said accurately that the tariffs suck and he projects that there will be a recession in the next half of the year. So I mean going about as hard as you possibly can in areas where Trump's ego is the largest and the most fragile. So now at 3:04am yesterday we get this tweet from Mr. Musk. He says, I regret but some of my posts about President Trump last week, they went too far. Now I have to say Candace Owens actually had a good tweet about this. She was like, so did they go too far because you were correct about him being in the Epstein files and now you feel bad about it or did they go too far because you were lying about him being in the Epstein files? Could you be a little more specific about what exactly is going on here? Because I don't know about you, but for me, if someone goes out and accuses me of being a pet up, that's gonna be a hard thing to take back. Yes, especially. Listen, the Epstein thing is it's a real problem for Trump. He was friends with Jeffrey Epstein. He was on that plane, we know in the flight logs numerous times, there's pictures of, there's videos, et cetera. And now suddenly his administration is very weird and really dodging and lying and spinning, et cetera, when it comes to actually releasing the Epstein files. So in any case, he has apparently some sort of a relationship mending situation is unfolding where J.D. vance and Suzy Wiles approached Elon in particular and were like, all right, let's try to smooth the waters here, calm the waters here. And Elon did. Now we have the reporting also talk to Trump before putting this post out. So that's kind of where things stand at this point.
- [22:03]
Lester Holt
I really just have no idea. We have some comment here from the first sort of the press secretary about the Elon rapprochement. Let's take a listen about Elon Musk.
- [22:13]
Krystal Ball
He issued an apology this morning. Has the president accepted the apology or does he think it's too little, too late? Ms. The President acknowledged the statement that Elon put out this morning, and he is appreciative of it.
- [22:27]
Lester Holt
And we are continuing to focus on.
- [22:29]
Krystal Ball
The business of the American people.
- [22:30]
Lester Holt
We are appreciative of it. Some of the background of this is actually kind of interesting as well. So, you know, this whole thing appears to have been broken, like you said, by JD and by Susie Wiles. Trump receives this phone call. We have the reporting. We can put that on the screen. Late on Monday night, after days of Trump dodging Elon's calls, it comes after he speaks privately with Susie WILES and with J.D. vance about a path to the truce. Wiles told associates, quote, she had come to like working with Musk and it was one of his regular points of contact. That is bullshit, by the way. That's not what I heard, definitely. But anyway, and so what we kind of see inside of all of this is there, I'll say this, why they want him back onside is interesting to me because he's obviously a huge political problem. The money, yeah, it's good, but what there's a dearth of rich billionaires like wanting to give, you know, come on, let's not kid ourselves here. The heir of, what's the guy's name? Timothy Mellon, the heir to the Carnegie Mellon fortune. He wired Trump like $55 million during the campaign. He actually would have been one of the biggest funders if it weren't for Elon. So I don't think money is the issue. I don't even really know what it is. We had this story about people who are worried about the Elon burn book, like the things that he might know. You can put T4 up on this one. I think that's very possible. Right, so some of the possible inside details about what he knows about the administration. T4, please, guys, can we put that on the screen? But I'm curious what you, like, why do they want him back on side? Like, he's not a political asset. I think we all know that.
- [24:12]
Krystal Ball
No, he is not a political asset. Which is part of why I thought it was so weird. People like Ro Khanna and others were like, let's reach out to Elon. I'm like, how did this go? Like, putting aside the principles which should be important, how did this go for Republic? Has this been great for the Trump administration? How did this go with that Wisconsin Supreme Court race? Was Elon a major asset there? Did that really help them, you know, be able to lose by double digits in that race? So, I mean, I can only speculate, right? So from the beginning, it was weird to me how. Well, it was weird to me throughout the Trump administration how deferential he was to Elon. That was weird to begin with. Then when Elon goes nuclear, when Elon goes total scorched earth with, you're a pedo and I won you in the election and you should be impeached and JD Van should replace you. When that happened, and Trump responded in this very meek way, like, not at all characteristic of the way he usually goes so hard. And he'll invent stories, and he knows he's got a gift for humiliation, right? He knows what he's doing in that department. He didn't do that. And in fact, JD Vance was on with Theo Vaughn while this was all unfolding. They were recording that interview. And according to the reports, at least, Trump counseled J.D. vance to be diplomatic in that conversation. In fact, before I heard that report and I just listened to JD Vance on with the OVAN talking about this, I thought, I don't know if Trump is gonna feel like he went strong enough.
- [25:42]
Lester Holt
I thought the same thing for him.
- [25:43]
Krystal Ball
I don't know if he did enough here to, like, really project his loyalty, but apparently he was following the advice and the counsel of Trump and what he wanted him to do. So, I mean, I can only assume that either he is worried about, like, whatever Elon knows about the Epstein files trials, or perhaps he thinks Elon knows something about the election, whether that's true or not, that he doesn't want to come out, or there is some other unknown something or fear of some unknown something that Elon could reveal that would be genuinely damaging and a problem for him. Now, listen, there are things in the public sphere, we know our carts that Elon holds. Trump has way more. He's the President of the United States. There's no doubt about that. Elon controls Twitter. Twitter's really important to the right right now. That's very significant. You know, that is like the backbone of Republican propaganda efforts is on Twitter right now. So that is important and consequential. Elon control Starlink. Starlink is even more important and consequential as communications backbone, which I think is intentional on Elon's part to have that kind of control. It's worth remembering in the context of the Ukraine war. I mean, first of all, Elon saying, okay, you can use our Starlink satellites for your communications, extremely consequential for Ukraine. And then he, him as an individual being able to say, you know, I don't want you to use it for Crimea. So we're going to take that offline. Whether you think that's the right decision or not, having one person with that kind of control running his own foreign policy shows you how important Starlink truly, truly is. SpaceX, NASA is very dependent on SpaceX at this point. You have the International Space Station very dependent on SpaceX at this point. Point. This is a, I think, colossal indictment of the move that has occurred over successive administrations towards privatization, not only of NASA, but of all sorts of government, you know, formerly government held capacity, and especially when you're talking about into the hands of one specific individual. So what was one of the first things that Elon said when Trump is like, you know, I may pull your contracts. Elon's like, okay, fine, we'll decommission the particular spaceship that they use for the International Space Station. So these things are all known, but I still don't think that that is enough to really account for the very meek way that Trump has approached this and his willingness right away to sort of extend a hand and try to calm the waters here with Elon. So I have to assume cuz one last thing here to get to the Bern book piece. It's not that these Republican aides are like, I know he knows this about us and so I'm concerned. They're like, he was in all of our departments.
- [28:26]
Lester Holt
Right, exactly.
- [28:27]
Krystal Ball
Starlink was put into the White House to suck up all kinds of data. He's got his little minions, his little doge minions who are loyal to him. About 100 of them is what I saw spread throughout agencies, throughout the government. So their fear is just like, we don't know what he knows or what sort of tea he could spill, or anyone will also just make some shit up, too. That's not beyond him either. So it could also be one of those scenarios where Trump's just like, I don't know, he could know some things that would be really damaging and that put some fear into it.
- [28:55]
Lester Holt
That's right. You don't even need a conspiracy theory. It's like somebody who's in the room. This happened so many times in the first Trump administration. Somebody was in the room, would come out of the room, and then they would denounce Trump and they would tell us about all the things that was going on. That's how the Woodward books happen. That's how all this other stuff happened. Right. And so here, I really think that that might be one of the more animating ones.
- [29:12]
Krystal Ball
The Twitter thing is also a lot of instances, though. It's not like Trump was afraid to go after them.
- [29:16]
Lester Holt
Sure, yeah.
- [29:17]
Krystal Ball
But I am looking to mend fence.
- [29:20]
Lester Holt
Well, Twitter, though, is actually the one that you mentioned, which is probably the most important, because Twitter is like the beating heart. See, you said Republican propaganda. I really don't think it's that it's about elite conversation. Like, that is what Twitter ultimately is. It's the place where narratives are set. Yes, Republican and Democratic, but, like, it is the beating heart of politics as we know it. And I think that's because of that, that they see the power and they're worried about, let's say, the algorithm of fundraising and so much more. And broadly, I mean, we shouldn't take this for granted either. I mean, they did buy a lot of their own bs. I mean, Elon was, like, deified into a God ever since he bought Twitter amongst a lot of Republicans. So you don't necessarily want that person to turn against you. And so for a lot of them, maybe not necessarily the top of the White House, but let's say Republican congressman officials, remember, there's like a Doge caucus, literally, in the House of Representatives. Like, there's all kinds. Kinds of stuff that's happening inside of all of the party apparatus. I wouldn't be surprised either. You know, the rnc, they're probably deeply integrated with Elon, so he does have leverage. You know, of course, not nearly as much as Donald Trump.
- [30:29]
Krystal Ball
The Epstein thing is real. I mean, this administration is acting so weird about the Epstein files.
- [30:34]
Lester Holt
I agree.
- [30:34]
Krystal Ball
And Epstein said Trump and him were besties for a decade. Right. You had Pam Bondi say that we've got thousands of hours of videos we're trying to go through and that's why it's taken so long for anything to come out. Then you have cash Patel go on with Joe Rogan to say there's no video.
- [30:49]
Lester Holt
NBC Nightly News legacy isn't handed down or NBC News.
- [30:52]
Tom Brokaw
I'm Tom Brokaw.
- [30:53]
Krystal Ball
You hope to see you back.
- [30:54]
Lester Holt
I'm Lester Holt.
- [30:55]
Sagar Enjeti
It's carried forward.
- [30:56]
Lester Holt
Tom Yamaz is there for us.
- [30:58]
Sagar Enjeti
Firefighters are still working around the clock. As the world changes, we look for what endures. We are coming on the air with breaking news right now. We look for a constant and from one era to the next. Trust is the anchor for NBC Nightly News.
- [31:11]
Lester Holt
I'm Tom Yahoo.
- [31:13]
Sagar Enjeti
A new chapter begins NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas evenings on NBC.
- [31:18]
Tom Brokaw
You know what's great about your investment account with the big guys? It's actually a time machine. Log in and zoom. Welcome back to 1999. It's time for an upgrade. At public.com you can invest in almost everything. Stocks, bonds, options and more. You can even put your cash to work at an industry leading 4.1% APY. Leave your clunky outdated platform behind. @Public.com Go to Public.com and fund your account in five minutes or less. Pay for by Public Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. Full disclosures at public.com disclosures this is.
- [31:49]
Unknown Host
Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Can't afford Ozempic. Try Wegovy from Future Health. Just $199 and FDA approved for weight loss. No insurance or tricky syringes needed. Just results. Visit future health.com that's future without the E and start losing weight this week. Future Health weight loss data based on independent studies sponsored by Future Health. Future Health is not a healthcare services provide meds are prescribed at providers discretion.
- [32:20]
Krystal Ball
These things do are not.
- [32:22]
Lester Holt
No, that is nuts. I agree.
- [32:23]
Krystal Ball
Like they don't go together. Yeah, you had that crazy influencer boondoggle where they all came out with their photo op with their binders of information that was already widely public publicly available since 2015. And actually Gawker had released more than was even in those binders. You had cash Patel and Dan Bongino go on Fox and say no, no, we know. We know that he killed himself. Like we can tell you definitive like just trust us. Don't you think we would tell you the truth? Just trust us. He definitely killed himself. There's nothing to see here. You had cash Patel tell Joe Rogan that actually the cameras were on in the Cell, which that is the opposite of what we've been told this whole entire time. Whenever Trump gets asked about Epstein, he gets really weird. We showed you the clip before. He gets asked, what about jfk? He gets asked about something else. He's like, yes, release the files. Yes, release the files. And then when, when it's Epstein, it's, yeah, well, I don't know, privacy and concern maybe a little bit less on that one. And that he always is like that with the Epstein thing. So I mean, yeah, I don't put. I do not put off the table whatsoever that that also could be a core part of why he is so reluctant to burn the bridge and go completely scorched earth with Elon in a way that he has not been reluctant with literally anyone else who has crossed him.
- [33:38]
Lester Holt
It is weird. There is no question. The Epstein thing is absolutely crazy as I still think it's the Israel connection. I really do. Just especially considering the Israel firsters that are all in the administration. Because if I had to guess, the smoking gun stuff on the Mossad in Israel must be insane on Epstein, like the money, the control, what they were asking of him, for what exact purpose he all had. So I think that that is still yet the most unexplored and really the most under discussed element of all of this. Everyone's like, oh, the compromise. I'm like, listen, I knew that that was there. I'm like, I want to know at the highest levels of the government, that's.
- [34:17]
Krystal Ball
What'S consequential for foreign policy, for understanding the way that this foreign government has operated within our own country. And yes, and I was with Piers Morgan this week and we were talking about all of this stuff and what the Republican Roger Stone was on there.
- [34:33]
Lester Holt
Oh, what did Roger say? I'm actually curious.
- [34:35]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, it's not a great format for him.
- [34:37]
Lester Holt
Yeah, right.
- [34:38]
Krystal Ball
It was not a great. He needs a one on one. He's a topic older people too. I struggle in that kind of panel format. So he honestly didn't have a lot to say. But basically Piers and the two Republicans on the panel, Clay Travis and Roger Stone on the panel were like, don't you think if there was something in the Epstein files about Trump that Democrats would have leaked it? And I didn't have a chance to jump in. But my rejoinder would be like, number one, we know there are Bill Clinton association, so they wouldn't want that piece out. And unlike you, I'm not a hack. So I'm willing to say this is a bipartisan situation. Here, that could be very embarrassing. But number two, the Israel piece, like, yeah, no American administration, which had been extraordinarily pro Israel and hardcore Zionists are going to want to reveal his connections to Mossad and that he was very likely, you know, based on what we know at this point, very likely an intelligence asset for them. And that's what he was up to. So, you know, to me, it's no mystery why this stuff stays under wraps, because it's both the whole intention, the whole project project was creating material that was politically damning for both parties to exercise control. And then the reason for that is also politically damning and something that no American administration will want to come out.
- [35:55]
Lester Holt
Yeah, while I was on paternity leave, I somehow fell down this YouTube rabbit hole at 2am about spies. And so I started listening. I knew a little bit about the case. The Jonathan Pollard case is insane, really. And it reminds me a lot of the whole Epstein thing. So Pollard is this guy working, I think it was at the nsa, and he's basically like a free for all. Like he'll spy for anybody because he wants money and he ends up hooking up with Mossad and they pay him a lot of money to basically steal NSA or intelligence documents and smuggle them out. And he gets for it. Okay, well, eventually he gets caught and he gets sentenced to prison for, I don't know, 30 some odd years for espionage. In that, Pollard basically transforms himself into saying that because he was a Zionist Jew, that he was spying for Israel because he believed they were not getting enough intelligence. Benjamin Netanyahu starts visiting Pollard in prison here in Washington. The entire Israeli government, they granted him citizenship. It became a point of diplomacy for that government to demand his release. Multiple Jewish billionaires in the United States petitioned President Clinton and other presidents since then, till his release, to be released from prison and be granted clemency because he had spied for an ally. And I was like, this is crazy. This guy is a straight up traitor. Netanyahu visits in prison, the moment he's off parole, he flies to Israel and he lives there now currently. I was like, was he greeted by.
- [37:21]
Krystal Ball
Netanyahu, like, off the plane?
- [37:23]
Lester Holt
I could not believe the level of influence of their government to have the audacity to basically beg ours every successive President, Attorney General and others to release him from prison. I mean, look, if a US asset was caused, you know, caught spying for Mossad or spying for us in Tel Aviv and they put him in jail, the Israelis would be outraged if we were like, hey, you gotta release him like, you know, this is, he's our guy, he's our citizen. You know, it's oh, we're all friends here and all. I couldn't believe that this was so out all in the open. And what really reminded me of it is that people like me who are saying all these things, I am right now in the 90s and the 2000s were branded what, rabid antisemites for bringing all. And I was like, man, this machine.
- [38:10]
Krystal Ball
And it worked for a long time.
- [38:11]
Lester Holt
It worked. It worked so well. And I know this is bad. And the level of control and all that that they have over our politics is just immense. It's horrific. I could never even begin to overstate what it is. But with the Internet, we have a chance to be able to speak out on some of this. And things are as hard as it is to believe, things are still a lot better. NBC Nightly News legacy isn't handed down or NBC News.
- [38:38]
Tom Brokaw
I'm Tom Brokaw.
- [38:38]
Krystal Ball
We hope to see you back here.
- [38:39]
Lester Holt
I'm Lester Holt.
- [38:40]
Sagar Enjeti
It's carried forward.
- [38:42]
Lester Holt
Tom Yamatz is there for us.
- [38:43]
Sagar Enjeti
Firefighters are still working around the clock. As the world changes, we look for what endures. We are coming on the air with breaking news right now we look for a constant and from one era to the next, Trust is the anchor for NBC Nightly News.
- [38:57]
Lester Holt
I'm Tom.
- [38:57]
Sagar Enjeti
Tom Yamas. A new chapter begins. NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas evenings on NBC.
- [39:04]
Tom Brokaw
And here we have a specimen from.
- [39:06]
Lester Holt
The early 2000s, a legacy investing platform.
- [39:09]
Tom Brokaw
Please don't touch the exhibit folks.
- [39:11]
Lester Holt
It could crash.
- [39:12]
Tom Brokaw
Ready to step out of the financial history museum@public.com you can invest in almost everything. Stocks, bonds, options and more. You can even put your cash to work at an industry leading 4.1% APY. Leave your clunky outdated platform behind. Go to public.com and fund your account in five minutes or less. Paid for by Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. Full disclosures at public.com disclosures this is.
- [39:34]
Unknown Host
Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Can't afford Ozempic. Try Wegovy from Future Health. Just $199 and FDA approved for weight loss. No insurance or tricky syringes needed, just results. Visit futurehealth.com that's future without the E and start losing weight this week. Future Health weight loss data based on independent studies sponsored by FutureHealth. FutureHealth is not a healthcare services provider. Meds are prescribed at providers discretion.
- [40:06]
Krystal Ball
Well, that is actually a good transition to zoron. Yeah who they are Trying to run the. He's an anti Semite playbook against. And you know what's, we've played some of the clips here that to me are just like mind blowing. The clip from the debate where they're like, well, you know, lightning round. Where would you go? First foreign trip as mayor, which, okay, why are you going on a foreign trip? Or whatever. And Zorin's like, I'm staying in New York. And they're like, well, but would you go to Israel? Will you commit to going to Israel? In a later response, he actually said, I'm not sure they would let me in because I'm a supporter of the BDS movement. Which is again, so here's this guy who a decade ago, inconceivable that he would be in the running for New York City, inconceivable that he would be in the running for New York City mayor and smearing him as an anti Semite would have worked. Now let's go ahead and put E3 up on the screen and then I'm going to play you some, some clips from his appearance on the Breakfast Club. According to new poll, this is the only one we have like this. So, you know, cars on tail, all that stuff.
- [41:07]
Lester Holt
Everyone take it for a grain of salt.
- [41:08]
Krystal Ball
According to a new poll from the Public Policy Polling Survey, up four points over Andrew Cuomo among likely Dem primary voters. This was conducted last week. So this is also, I think the, the first poll that we have, which is post debate and post AOC endorsement, New York City does ranked choice voting. The poll's not ranked choice. So this would be basically like the first round. The result in the first round. It has never been the case. We've not seen any poll before that has him number one in the first round. And the dynamics of the race are such that in all the polling we've seen that does simulate ranked choice vote, he picks up votes as you go throughout the round because other more progressive candidates, basically their voters fall out. Their second choice is Zoran or their third choice is Zoran or whatever. And there's a concerted, somewhat coordinated effort to not rank Cuomo on those ranked choice ballots whatsoever. In addition, this was really quite significant because the knock on him has been like, okay, he's doing good with white progressives, but he hasn't been able to expand his base. He's supposed to be this democratic socialist running on freezing the rent and public grocery stores and free public buses and free childcare and all those sorts of things. This should be, he should want this working class base, and he hasn't been able to pull it together. Well, we now have some indications that he is growing in some of those key demographic areas. Could put this piece up on the screen, which was really significant. This E4, guys. His support continues to be strongest among white and Asian voters, but you now have 27% of black voters surveyed supported him. That second only to Cuomo, who is somewhere around 40, as did nearly one third of Hispanic voters. An indication he's gaining multiracial support among New Yorkers. In fact, a previous poll that had come out before this that had him losing to Cuomo after all of the ranked choice voting only by two had found that the demographics where he was performing the most poorly were also the demographics that knew the least about him, which to me was an indication that potentially he had a lot of room to grow. He also, Sager had wildly higher favorability ratings than Andrew Cuomo, who of course had to leave the governor's office in disgrace, both over sexual harassment and over his handling of COVID He lied to Congress over, you know, with this report that they put together that undercounted COVID deaths in nursing homes because he was trying to hide the deadly impact of some of his Covid era policies. So he's got a lot of baggage. But he also has, you know, Cuomo is the iconic name in New York politics. He has really coalesced as sort of like the establishment moderate figure in this race. And whether or not this poll is fully accurate, you can say at this point, Zoran is certainly giving him a run for his money.
- [43:51]
Lester Holt
Oh, I mean, this guy has. He has performed better than anybody I have seen yet. Right. Like in terms of. Especially in terms of my expectations. Originally I was like, I was like, look, no offense. I was like, I think this guy's going to lose by 50 points just from a kind of a cynical assumption around how US politics, New York City politics, kind of has been. They elected Bloomberg and de Blasio, for God's sake. Right. Like, this is not really a city that has rewarded upstarts, at least in the modern era. I will note Bloomberg did endorse Andrew Cuomo and there is like some centrist energy around the guy. But in a way, Zoran may have gotten very lucky in that the person that they picked is this unpopular, at least not unpopular, but a scarred centrist figure of Cuomo who has the legacy of COVID who has the fallout the resigning. Me too. You know, that stuff did a lot of damage to his brand going into this. And so he's not untainted. And so you have the rise of like online resistance energy to Donald Trump. And then you have Cuomo, who's not only this establishment figure, but just like a deeply gross figure who has been so like tied with the New York machine. And you put those two things together and you kind of do have a perfect storm. It's possible. We don't want to overstate it. Like that said, that pulls 500 people, okay? New York City is a population of millions and also ranked choice screws everything up. Because yes, he may be the first choice in this poll, but you know, the New York Times came out today and endorsed some guy I've literally never even heard of, Right? And apparently the New York Times endorsement is, is quite impactful in the state or in the city of New York or at least it was last time around. No, I mean, look, this sounds crazy, but, right, we're talking about high, we're about talking about low turnout New York City liberal elections like the New York Times endorsement, if I recall, during the whole Andrew Yang situation, like it eventually did have some impact and so I just have no idea how it is all going to play out. I do think he's gonna do much better than we originally thought. At the very least, you know, the guy has gained himself a profile of some kind, you know, going into this.
- [46:00]
Krystal Ball
Did they endorse Brad Lander?
- [46:01]
Lester Holt
Yeah, that's who it is, Brad. Yeah. I'm like, who is that?
- [46:04]
Krystal Ball
Sorry, I apologize.
- [46:06]
Lester Holt
I have no clue.
- [46:07]
Krystal Ball
Like, pretty progressive, but not you Democratic, socialist level progressive. Well, I mean, here's the other thing that you have to hand it to Zoron. I don't care where you are on the political spectrum. He's run a fantastic campaign. He has this very consistent clear cut messaging around. We are gonna make New York affordable. New York should be for everyone. And he's got some really digestible, concrete policy proposals that he has relentlessly offered in order to marry the message with the policy. And it's clearly working. I mean, this guy, he. There are many other figures in this race who had a larger citywide profile than Zoron. Even putting aside Cuomo, Rod Lander being one of them, Scott Stringer being another one, Adrian Adams being another one who had citywide profiles and were established politicians and would have been, if you were putting money down, much more likely to sort of occupy the lane as the progressive anti Cuomo choice. And he has blown them out of the water. Water with the strength of his campaign, his social media game. And he's very good. And I think you'll see that now in some of these clips that we can play you from the Breakfast Club. So he went on, I think it was yesterday, and he gets asked about Trump and he gets asked about Democratic Party leadership and how we need to move past that era. And Charlamagne seems to be pretty sympathetic to him. Let's go ahead and take a listen to this first point part from Zoron about standing up to Trump.
- [47:35]
Tom Brokaw
I saw you say that in the debate. You know, you would be Trump's worst nightmare. But once again, why should that matter to anybody voting for you now? You're not running against Donald Trump.
- [47:45]
Sagar Enjeti
No. But you are running against the authoritarianism that he's bringing to the city.
- [47:49]
Tom Brokaw
So you think Cuomo is an authoritarian?
- [47:51]
Sagar Enjeti
No, I think that there's too many commonalities between him and Donald Trump's record. And my point is that you don't want to have a mayor who has to pick up a phone call from someone who cut a $250,000 check to both him and Donald Trump. You want to have a mayor who's willing to fight for the city and have that be the thing that he's ultimately responsible for. And I think to your point, we also have to be honest about how we lost this presidential election. You know, New York is the state that had the largest swing in the country towards Donald Trump, 11 and a half points. And it happened far from the caricature of Trump voters. It happened in the hearts of immigrant New York City. I went to Fordham Road in the Bronx. I went to Hillside Avenue in Queens. And when I asked New Yorkers there, almost all of whom were Democrats, who did you vote for and why? Many told me they didn't vote. Many told me they voted for Trump. And they told me they voted for him because they remembered having more money in their pocket four years ago for their rent, for their childcare, for their groceries, even for their Metro card.
- [48:47]
Tom Brokaw
They remember how they feel.
- [48:49]
Sagar Enjeti
And as insincere and ridiculous and horrific as we know Trump's policies to be, B that is how people felt. Those are the decisions that they made. And when I asked these same New Yorkers, what would it take to bring you back to the Democratic Party, they said, a relentless focus on an economic agenda.
- [49:03]
Krystal Ball
So Sager, you see there how he turns this question, a challenging question to him about Trump, like, why are you focused on Trump into number one? You should care that Cuomo's getting money from the same guys, and he used these same sort of lines in the debate, I think, to great effect of like he's getting money from the same billionaires as Trump. And that's something you should be concerned about. And then he is immediately able to turn it to his message about affordability and how he's gonna appeal to voters. And he goes right after that party, goes through his like, you know, free childcare and free bus fare and freezing the rent. He goes through his list of policy priorities. So I mean, he's skilled.
- [49:36]
Lester Holt
Look, he's a good communicator. He also has, he was the podcast guy, he was the online guy. He really learned a lot from a lot of the movement, from a lot of the Bernie Sanders wing. And look, I've got a lot of differences with Mr. Zoron, but I will say I received expect people who are underdogs, people who are able to use the Internet and to use the new lessons of politics to be able to overcome things. And regardless of whether he wins or not, he is going to be a fixture of some kind in New York City politics. He could find himself running for Congress, you know, or for any other. Like this is a real.
- [50:12]
Krystal Ball
He's a star.
- [50:12]
Lester Holt
One of those campaigns where whether you win or lose, like you won something and you won something big. Especially I don't even know if he wants to necessarily remain big. Just the city of New York. He could easily find himself vaulted to a member of Congress or who knows? I mean, what AOC wants to do, right? If she decides to primary Chuck Schumer or Chuck Schumer decides not to run. There's a lot of different things that are on the table.
- [50:36]
Krystal Ball
Indeed. He also got asked about dumb leadership and failures of dumb leadership in the context of challenging Andrew Cuomo. I thought he responded to this well too. Let's take a listen to that.
- [50:47]
Tom Brokaw
You do have to throw that old regime under the bus. Cuz it's not just Cuomo.
- [50:50]
Sagar Enjeti
That bus is going to be free.
- [50:52]
Tom Brokaw
Sure, but it's not just Cuomo in the Democratic Party. It's a lot of old legions.
- [50:56]
Sagar Enjeti
Absolutely.
- [50:56]
Tom Brokaw
It's the Chuck Schumers, it's the Bidens. You got to throw all of that under the bus and run it over. And people have to hear you say that because I keep hearing y' all, you know, you keep talking about Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. No, but you, but your party has been just as ineffective and just as corrupt in a lot of ways.
- [51:09]
Sagar Enjeti
Trust me, I have, I hear you because I've been critical about the style of leadership, leadership that gave rise to Donald Trump is also a style of leadership within the Democratic Party. And I think for too long it's been a party that has valued insider politics, pay your dues, the words and advice of consultants over the people that are Democrats themselves. And I do think it's time for a new generation of leadership. You know, Cuomo would be the oldest mayor elected in New York City. I would represent a completely new generation. And I think it's important for that because it's not just about age, it's not just about vision. It's also about what has your record been and who have you been fighting for. And is that distinct enough from what got us here?
- [51:52]
Krystal Ball
It's such a strength to be able to unequivocally bash Democratic leadership because they are so unpopular with the entire country, also at this point with the Democratic base. And so that he feels no qualms about being like, yeah, there are a lot of problems there. They're corrupt. They caused a lot of issues that's gonna be appealing outside of just like a hardcore progressive base.
- [52:13]
Lester Holt
So part of that Quinnipiac poll, which is making waves yesterday, again, whether you believe it or not, is actually the most unpopular thing in that poll, was the Democratic Party is. The Democratic Party approval rating has just 21% disapprove is 70. So running against it. You're an idiot.
- [52:27]
Krystal Ball
It's a no brainer.
- [52:28]
Lester Holt
I've been aghast at the Democrats, honestly. We talked about the dnc, but I never thought I'd be in a position to defend David Hall. They destroyed this man for nothing. He said, I'm going to primary people who are like, not standing up for our values. And then they removed him using some DEI gender component.
- [52:49]
Krystal Ball
It's like a cartoon, such a character. What did he do wrong?
- [52:52]
Lester Holt
This guy played ball every step of the way. He defended Biden. He's not some Bernie Sanders shit lib. And all he said was, hey, I think we need some new blood. And they cut his head off. They killed him politically. I can't believe it. I can't believe they would do that to him. I really do think if you're a young Democrat out there, you need to stand up for David Hogg. Like, it's not right what they did to him. They nuked him. Even James Carville said that he agreed with him and they still took him out. I'm aghast, honestly, at the level of control these people have.
- [53:26]
Krystal Ball
They are so useless.
- [53:28]
Lester Holt
It's unbelievable.
- [53:29]
Krystal Ball
It's truly unbelievable. So for Zorin to be like, yeah, throw him under the bus. Throw him, right? Yes, the bus will be free. I mean, he's. That's like, that is a strength. And I think one of the things that we've been looking at too, is the demographics where he's strongest. And if you're looking for someone who appeals to the bros, Zoran is really clean up in that department. And I think part of it is because of this orientation, because he's anti system. And I think part of what's going on here is that is actually more important than where he is on the ideological spectrum. People feel like, oh, he's different. He's willing to create, criticize his own party. Cuomo. Let's put E5 up on the screen. It was the last piece here. Cuomo's main argument against him is that he's not experienced enough, that he doesn't have enough governance experience, which at the mayor level, this is someone who actually has to do a real job. Things need to happen for the city's residents. The trash needs to be picked up, the snow needs to be removed. There's contentious local governance issues. And so. So he's trying to make the most of that, that he can. And Zoran is only 33 years old, so that Cuomo is in effect, running a very sort of standard issue establishment playbook. I'm the one who has the experience. You can trust me. You may not love me, that's okay. But I'm the one that you know and can trust and I can handle the city and I know what to do. And oh, by the way, that guy's an anti Semite. That's basically his playbook. And look, it may be enough. It might be, but I think you have to. If you just look at the trajectory of the polls right now, Zorin has all of the momentum. He sucked up all of the oxygen in the room. The AOC endorsement, I do think is actually going to be significant because Zorin has lagged in terms of appeal to women. I think she could help in that department. She also just gives him some legitimate, you know, given that he does have, you know, a small amount of experience and is relatively young. Like having this AOC who's now a titan of New York City politics, have her, give her blessing, I think is significant as well. I think it's pretty likely Bernie is going to come in for him, too.
- [55:36]
Lester Holt
It's the last minute. It's a little bit last minute, though. I mean, it's Saturday, so. Or, sorry, next Tuesday.
- [55:41]
Krystal Ball
Yeah, it is. There's not a lot of time he responded like stay tuned or so. So I think that he probably is going to come in as well. And I do think they start voting like this weekend.
- [55:49]
Lester Holt
So it is New York is between ranked choice, early vote and then taking like nine months to count their ballots.
- [55:55]
Krystal Ball
We'll find out that this the election results this year, next year, this time, something like that.
- [56:00]
Lester Holt
Completely insane sis.
- [56:02]
Krystal Ball
In any case, very interesting race and I think part of the reason to cover it. New York City obviously is consequential in and of itself, but also for taking the temperature of where the Democratic base is, I think is also significant here. Very different than the dynamics that unfolded when Eric Adams was elected.
- [56:19]
Lester Holt
Very true. All right, thank you guys so much for watching. We really appreciate it. Don't forget we've got the free month trial going on right now. BP free is the very last day you can take advantage. BreakingPoints.com Go ahead and sign up and we will see you all later.
- [56:39]
Tom Brokaw
And here we have a specimen from.
- [56:41]
Lester Holt
The early 2000s, a legacy investing platform.
- [56:44]
Tom Brokaw
Please don't touch the exhibit it folks.
- [56:46]
Lester Holt
It could crash.
- [56:47]
Tom Brokaw
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- [57:09]
Unknown Host
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- [57:39]
Lester Holt
Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days?
- [57:44]
Krystal Ball
Days?
- [57:44]
Lester Holt
Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide and every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn more@discover.com Credit Card Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report, this is an iHeart podcast.